Techrights

Famous Due to Wealth Versus Famous Owing to Accomplishment/s

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 30, 2025

Linus Torvalds is famous owing to accomplishments and wealth (the Linux Foundation pays him over a million dollars a year). It's possible for both to apply. There's nothing wrong with becoming affluent through positive contributions to society.

Dr. Stallman, however, despite Torvalds relying on his sacrifices, is widely known but not rich. Dr. Stallman has received dozens of honorary PhDs. He's neither rich nor does he live like a rich man.

Society, however, encourages us to think that smart people inevitably become rich (because all they ever pursue is money) and that therefore rich people must be smart (no matter their privilege or inheritance status). The reality is, many people become rich owing to crime and many stupid - either corrupt or not - end up rich, somehow. That's certainly true in mainstream sports and the "celebrity scenes".

Many people who rose to high status are not rich, they're just vulnerable. Activists like Greta (the famous one) end up very bitter and repeatedly arrested. Dr. Stallman, whose words get distorted, is widely demonised and defamed. It isn't fair, but then again, life isn't fair and justice is just a word in the dictionary.

The reason Julian Assange needed to wait for well over a decade to become a 'freeman' is that he made "powerful" (rich) enemies and he didn't really personally gain from Wikileaks (unlike Jimmy Wales with Wikipedia, where he got both money and fame), except in the public awareness - for to many people worldwide he became a martyr and a hero. He suffered a great deal to bring to light inconvenient truths about truly malicious companies, governments, and people. He suffered for years, but glory can last decades. Next year (in July) he turns 55, so he can take an "early retirement" and bask in his past accolades. He basically spent his adult life exposing and fighting corruption and crime; unlike those who gained financially by participating in either or both.

Wealth and fame are not the same thing; many very horrible criminals (even terrorists) became famous, but they're neither admired nor rich. They're notorious/infamous and behind bars (or dead).

Aspirations of fame are misguided, as are aspirations of money-hoarding escapades because life is finite. A 90-year-old billionaire isn't rich; some of them are mentally sick, not just frail and transient. █